Highlights of This Issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 11 investment and financing events in the global blockchain sector last week (3.2-3.8), with a total funding scale exceeding $184 million. The overview is as follows:
- DeFi announced 3 investment and financing events, among which QFEX completed a $9.5 million seed round financing;
- Web3+AI announced 1 investment and financing event, AI Agent revenue protocol Superpower completed Pre-Seed round financing, with participation from Taisu Ventures and others;
- Infrastructure & Tools announced 5 investment and financing events, among which Cyclops completed $8 million financing, with investors including Castle Island Ventures, etc.;
- Centralized Finance announced 2 investment and financing events, among which digital asset trading company Crossover completed a $31 million Series B financing, led by Tradeweb;
DeFi
On-chain escrow decentralized protocol OmniPact completes $50 million private financing
The decentralized protocol OmniPact, which builds a trust layer for peer-to-peer transactions of physical and digital assets, announced the completion of $50 million in private financing. The investors are a consortium of institutional investors and family offices that requested anonymity. The protocol uses smart contracts as on-chain escrow to solve the "trust problem" in peer-to-peer transactions. The new funds will support the development of its core contracts and multi-chain infrastructure, as well as related security audits, while promoting the launch of its testnet in Q1 2026.
QFEX completes $9.5 million seed round financing and launches 24/7 high-leverage RWA trading platform
QFEX announced the completion of a $9.5 million seed round financing. This round was led by General Catalyst partner Yuri Sagalov, with participation from Paul Graham, Y Combinator, and multiple institutions and angels. Investors include NexusVP, Moonfire VC, Goodwater Capital, Liquid2V, 468 Capital, RitualVC, etc. QFEX claims to be the first high-leverage exchange led by a traditional finance team that allows 24/7 trading of traditional assets (RWA), offering investors up to 50x leverage for trading US stocks, commodities, and foreign exchange. The team members come from Citadel, Jump Trading, Optiver, Jane Street, Tower Research Capital, and Flow Traders.
Sats Terminal receives strategic investment from Gate Ventures
Gate Ventures, the venture capital arm of Gate.com, announced a strategic investment in the Bitcoin-native financial platform Sats Terminal. The latter focuses on providing self-custody trading, lending, and yield services for BTC holders, aiming to integrate the fragmented Bitcoin DeFi infrastructure into a more user-friendly unified entry point, lowering the barrier to entry for retail and institutional use.
AI
AI Agent revenue protocol Superpower completes Pre-Seed round financing, with participation from Taisu Ventures and others
The AI Agent revenue protocol Superpower announced on platform X the completion of a Pre-Seed round financing, with the amount undisclosed. Taisu Ventures, 280 Capital, Paper Ventures, and CatcherVC participated.
AI procurement agent company Lio completes $30 million Series A financing, led by a16z
AI procurement agent startup Lio announced the completion of a $30 million Series A financing, led by Andreessen Horowitz. Lio builds virtual procurement teams for large enterprises, taking over the entire process from demand submission, inquiry and price comparison, supplier negotiation, supplier onboarding, to placing orders in ERP, email, and contract systems through natural language requests. a16z stated that the current procurement processes of large global enterprises still heavily rely on emails, PDFs, and manual coordination, with procurement transaction volumes linearly tied to the scale of human resources, and enterprises spending approximately hundreds of billions of dollars annually on procurement manpower. Lio attempts to break this linear relationship through scalable AI agents, automating traditional back-office procurement work.
(This financing event is not included in this week's report statistics)
Infrastructure & Tools
Cyclops secures $8 million financing to advance stablecoin payment infrastructure
US stablecoin infrastructure startup Cyclops completed $8 million in financing. Investors include Castle Island Ventures, F-Prime, and payment company Shift4 Payments. The valuation was not disclosed. Cyclops provides underlying stablecoin settlement technology for merchants and payment companies in industries such as aviation and hotels. It currently cooperates with helicopter travel company Blade and merchants using Shift4 like Blue Origin, providing a "technical pipeline" when they complete 24/7 settlements via stablecoins. The company was founded by Alex Wilson and two others, currently has about 20 employees, profits from transaction fees, and plans to further expand cooperation with payment and card organizations such as Fiserv, Adyen, Global Payments, and Visa, Mastercard, American Express.
Decentralized cloud storage service provider Akave completes $6.65 million seed round financing
Decentralized cloud storage service provider Akave announced the completion of $6.65 million in financing. Participants include Protocol Labs, No Limit Holdings, Blockchange, Lightshift, Blockchain Builders Fund, Big Brain Holdings, Avalanche Foundation, and Filecoin Foundation, among others. Akave Cloud is an S3-compatible decentralized storage platform built on a dedicated Avalanche Layer 1 blockchain, aiming to provide enterprises with an alternative to traditional cloud storage, supporting AI applications to run without being locked into specific cloud service providers.
Utexo completes $7.5 million financing, with participation from Tether, Gate Ventures, etc.
The Bitcoin USDT infrastructure project Utexo completed $7.5 million in financing. Investors include Tether, BigBrainVC, Portal Ventures, Gate Ventures, etc. Utexo stated it will promote the native deployment of USDT on the Bitcoin network, claiming "USDT is finally coming home after more than a decade." This round also attracted follow-on investments from multiple institutions including Alchemy, FTI Global, Maven11 Capital, KuCoin Ventures, and early participants of projects like Ledger.
Utexo is a Bitcoin-native settlement infrastructure that integrates the RGB protocol and the Lightning Network, supporting private, instant, and non-custodial stablecoin transactions on the Bitcoin network, directly introducing stablecoin liquidity into the Bitcoin ecosystem and expanding decentralized financial application scenarios.
Five Bells, founded by former NYDIG executives, completes seed round financing, building a "native Bitcoin DvP settlement layer"
Five Bells, co-founded by former NYDIG and Two Sigma executives, has completed a seed round financing. Ego Death Capital led the round, with Epoch VC, Timechain, and Fulgur Ventures participating.
Five Bells is building what it calls the "first native Bitcoin DvP settlement layer," aiming to address counterparty risks in large-scale Bitcoin transactions for institutions. Its solution allows both parties to a transaction to pre-lock settlement terms on-chain, lock BTC in a mechanism similar to escrow, and automatically complete delivery upon confirmation of fiat wire transfer or stablecoin payment, thereby eliminating operational friction and settlement costs. The solution is based on Taproot FROST contracts, utilizing the Bitcoin network as a neutral and shared trust anchor. The company plans to officially launch the service to customers after completing final testing and audits.
Ethereum-based pre-confirmation network Interstate completes $1.5 million financing
The Ethereum-based pre-confirmation network Interstate completed $1.5 million in financing. Participants include Marshland Capital, Taisu Ventures, Bloccelerate, Alpen Labs, GD1, MH Ventures, Alchemy Ventures, Legends Group, Waikit Lau, and Sergey Gorbunov. According to the introduction, Interstate is a company focused on cryptocurrency R&D, committed to improving the Ethereum user experience by shortening transaction confirmation times. Their pre-confirmation network allows users to receive transaction confirmation in about 100 milliseconds, faster than Ethereum's standard 12-second block time.
Centralized Finance
Financial app ARQ focused on stablecoins completes $70 million financing, with participation from Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund
The Latin American financial application ARQ, focused on stablecoins, completed $70 million in financing, with participation from Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund. This round of financing will be used for rebranding, hiring new employees, and expanding services beyond US dollar-denominated transfers, including wealth management, local currency high-yield accounts, and credit business.
ARQ, formerly known as DolarApp, provides multi-currency accounts, digital wallets, foreign exchange, and debit card services, helping users store and transfer funds across borders. It has over 2 million customers in Latin America, with annualized transaction volume exceeding $10 billion. ARQ stated that it has built infrastructure connecting traditional banking networks and stablecoin-based payment systems, enabling users to hold and transact in foreign currencies.
Digital asset trading company Crossover completes $31 million Series B financing, led by Tradeweb
Fixed income trading giant Tradeweb Markets led a $31 million Series B investment in digital asset trading company Crossover Markets Group. DRW Venture Capital, Ripple, Virtu Financial, Wintermute Ventures, XTX Markets, and Illuminate Financial participated. The deal values Crossover at approximately $200 million. As part of the transaction, Tradeweb will utilize its algorithmic technology to route institutional clients' crypto orders through the platform, providing a direct channel for their entry into the digital asset space.
Crossover was founded in 2022 by foreign exchange market veterans from Jefferies and Euronext FX. Its CROSSx platform adopts an ECN model, separating trade execution from custody and credit. Since its launch, it has matched over $50 billion in notional trading volume.
Others
Robotics company Neura Robotics secures approximately €1 billion financing led by Tether, valuation reaches €4 billion
German humanoid robot startup Neura Robotics is raising approximately €1 billion in financing. This round involves participation from stablecoin issuer Tether Holdings, with a post-money valuation of about €4 billion. Informed sources said the company may continue to raise funds after this round. Neura Robotics focuses on AI-driven humanoid robots. Its website showcases its use in automotive assembly lines and household scenarios. The company currently sells factory transport robots and home robotic arm devices. CEO David Reger previously stated that the company's order size last year was close to $1 billion, with customers including Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Omron.
(This financing event is not included in this week's report statistics)
